The Warriors were 11-22 on the road last season, which was actually pretty good for them compared to recent debacles away from Oracle.

For instance: They were 10-31 on the road two seasons ago. And they were 8-33 on the road in 2009-’10 and 2008-’09.

And now, after last night’s victory in Charlotte, the Warriors are 8-4 on the road… and 14-7 overall, which happens to be the fifth-best record in the West and seventh-best in the whole league.

This does mean something. Even though we all know it’s early and many tougher tests lie ahead… the Warriors playing like this in a sustained period does mean something significant.

But stop, let’s go back to that road record, because that is the heavy-duty indicator here:

* After starting 4-0 on this pivotal 7-game roadie, the Warriors currently have the SECOND MOST road victories in the league, behind only San Antonio, which is a ridiculous 11-1 away from home.

Yes, you could say that the Warriors have taken full advantage of three of the easiest road games they’ll play this season–at Detroit, at Washington and at Charlotte, three dreadful teams, particularly on offense.

If the games are there for the taking if you can just don’t get in the way of constant bricking by Brandon Knight, Martell Webster or Ramon Sessions… well, that’s not exactly a test of champions.

(The toughest part is at the end: Miami on Wednesday and then Orlando-Atlanta back-to-back. But if the GSWs just steal one of those, this would be their best overall long trip in my memory.)

But road wins are too valuable to just dismiss like that, particularly for the Warriors, who have lost so many games to so many terrible teams over the last many years.

Road wins are NBA gold pieces–it really doesn’t matter how you acquire them, once they’re yours, they’re invaluable. If you can get to 16 to 21 road wins in a season… and the Warriors are easily on that pace now.. you set yourself up for a winning record, if you can blast through a big majority your home games, which I expect the Warriors to do.

This is how teams get to the .500 plateau–by picking off a large percentage of the easy road games and then winning a fair share of everything else.

And the Warriors are doing this because, yes, they are better than they’ve been since 2008. They also can get a lot better because of two names: Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut.

Who knows, it might still all fall apart, but the team is giving indications that they can at least get into the West playoff race. They might still fall short playing decently, but it’s time to say it:

For once, the Warriors’ roster makes sense because the front office has added depth, some size, the players are blending, sharing the ball, really trying to play solid defense (though, again, I have some suspicions that the stats are a little skewed by playing some terrible offensive teams).

When your roster makes sense, you can wade through long road trips, get different bonus production from different players, and motor on through into January and February with a fighting chance–or more–at the playoffs.

I’m not going to over-do the analysis. I’ll save that for later. But I’ll toss out five fast elements of the Warriors’ obvious improvement:

1–No Monta Ellis. I don’t want to rip the guy who did so much acrobatic scoring for the Warriors over the years, but the reason they were unbalanced was because Ellis made them unbalanced.

All the Warriors have from the three-team Ellis trade right now is the pick that netted them Festus Ezeli–while they wait for Andrew Bogut to get healthy or figure out how to play while not quite healthy–and they’re better just because they don’t have Ellis dominating the ball, limiting Stephen Curry and keeping Klay Thompson from getting minutes.

Mark Jackson was a big fan of Ellis, but he’s a better coach without having to keep funneling the ball to Ellis.

2–Curry is playing beautifully, confidently, and combining with Thompson to give the Warriors a fearsome offensive back court that occasionally plays very good D.Yes, this is connected to No. 1.

Admittedly, I wasn’t 100% on board with the $44M extension Curry got before the season (mostly due to long-term and short-term concerns about his ankle, but he’s been healthy all season).

A true measure of his value: Charlotte wanted him badly, and you watch that game last night: If Charlotte had Curry, the Bobcats would be immensely better. They would’ve absolutely offered him the max if he was on the market as a restricted F/A next summer.

That’s why the Warriors felt they had to extend Curry for almost full price, even with the ankle issue, and if he plays like this even, $11M per is a great price.

Curry isn’t always great, but he gives the Warriors flow and offensive explosiveness–and point guards who can’t do that are getting regularly destroyed by him.

3–Over the last few weeks, David Lee (leads the Warriors with a +60 season plus-minus) is playing very well and very efficiently–easily the best ball of his Warriors’ career.

I’ve been a Lee critic–I don’t give his defense a free pass and it shouldn’t get a free pass.

But when he shoots at this kind of clip (FG% is up from 49% to 51.4% over a handful of games) and feeds shooters and rebounds like a madman… Lee is a definite “plus” player and deserves praise.

Praise for good; non-praise when not good. Sorry if the multitudes of DLee fans don’t like that process, but it’s the one I follow.

Also, the front-office sensibility has helped Curry and Lee more than anybody, and it figures, because they are the two centerpieces of the team–Lee now has Carl Landry as a tag-teamer, which means Lee doesn’t have to do as much heavy lifting and though I don’t love when they’re in the game together, it’s a very effective offensive front court.

And that small line-up has faked it defensively fairly well so far.

4–Jarrett Jack is a player. And Draymond Green… if you like subtle, thoughtful, tough basketball, you’ve got to appreciate this guy.

Charlotte and Washington desperately need a guy like Green–or 5 guys like Green–but I’m not sure they’d know what to do with him; he doesn’t dunk or throw silly allez oop passes or pose like a body builder after a dunk when the team is down by 20.

Green isn’t a shooter–but the Warriors have plenty of those guys. He just guards people, cuts off angles, rebounds in traffic, passes to the right spot, cuts to the right spot, and helps the Warriors win.

Ezeli went 30th, and that’s a good Warriors pick.

Jeffrey Taylor went 31st to Charlotte, Tomas Satoransky went 32nd to Washington, Bernard James 33rd to Dallas (in a trade), and Jae Crowder 34th to Dallas (also in a trade).

Then the Warriors took Green 35th. He might be the 12th or 13th best player out of this draft, so yeah, that’s a steal. (Geez, that’s a long item all itself. Which I will do.)

5–Mark Jackson and his staff are doing a very nice job.

You can tell they’re focusing on offensive and defensive chemistry and stopping the opponent from doing the easiest things (offensive rebounding, races to the lay-up line) and that the players are listening.

Also, a very non-Warriors like thing: They haven’t felt sorry for themselves and have adjusted to the loss of Brandon Rush and Bogut for most of the season so far. Instead, they’ve integrated who they’ve got, identified Green as a key piece and kept moving forward.

Really, you can appreciate Jackson every time the Warriors face a team that is essentially un-coached–Washington would be the most recent example.

The Warriors don’t always play brilliantly, but there’s a structure there, the players clearly want to do the right things, and there is definitely more attention to the defensive end.

On offense, Jackson and his staff are consistently working a nice Curry-Lee pick-and-roll action… and that twins with the Jack-Landry chemistry.

On defense, opponents are having a very tricky time scoring vs. the Warriors and the GSWs often own the glass, which is new for all of us.

They’ve got LeBron coming up, and then the whole rest of the season and maybe things have been a little easy so far. Maybe opponents have assumed the Warriors were a bad team, and they’re not bad.

That’s a step, right there. The next few are tougher… but could be very entertaining to see.

Yeah, great start to the season for the Warriors. I know it's early in the season but I'm sure if someone offered Mark Jackson a 14-7 start before the season started that he would've gladly accepted that.

1, he marginally acknowledged the tantrum he threw about Curry's contract extension. "Didn't love it" is a tremendously light way of putting it. KNBR had him on afterwards and he did his typical sarcastic-cynic routine where he joked about how we'd tank again after Curry's ankle blew up and ran down a list of alternative points he thought we could have signed for less money; NONE of whom could hold a candle to Curry. Lucky for him, he can pretend on his blog like he didn't have any egg to wipe off his face and attempt to save some credibility. I don't mind if you were skeptical about Curry's health when he inked his deal, but Tim K flat out made the extension sound like a huge mistake.

2, what a Skip Bayless, cranky douche bag thing to do: needling at Lee's defense and provoking his fans amidst a reluctant, backhanded acknowledgement of Lee's all-star level of play this year. Kawakami doesn't merely "not give Lee a pass for defense"; the fool mealy-mouths constantly about the type of contract he has, claims Lee can't play back-to-the-basket (proven false), and made enormous blanket statements labeling Lee as nothing more than a leading scorer on a bad team (He said the same about Jamal Crawford, too... How'd that work out for Atlanta and LA?). The fact is, Kawakami seems to have had an axe to grind against Lee since he got here and apparently every compliment painfully extracted from the resisting Tim K will be accompanied, three-fold, with things that Lee does wrong. By the way, did anyone hear Tim acknowledge Lee's increased defensive output this year? About how he's rotating and calling out cutters and fouling hard and boxing out? Didn't think so.

Overall, it's the same old Tim K. He can't really spin a 4-0 road trip into something chaotic or bad, but he sounded awfully defeated in terms of being obligated to acknowledge the Warriors' promising start. It's as if he's rooting for the worst so he can prattle on with his usual "I told you so" chicken little verbatim.

He's right about Monta Ellis though. Just taking Monta off this team makes this a better team that actually plays like a team. Its not one guy shooting 25 times thinking he's a superstar player. On any given night, different players can shine. One night it could be David Lee and the next, Stephen Curry and that makes them harder to defend. Thats something that couldn't happen with Ellis.

1, he marginally acknowledged the tantrum he threw about Curry's contract extension. "Didn't love it" is a tremendously light way of putting it. KNBR had him on afterwards and he did his typical sarcastic-cynic routine where he joked about how we'd tank again after Curry's ankle blew up and ran down a list of alternative points he thought we could have signed for less money; NONE of whom could hold a candle to Curry. Lucky for him, he can pretend on his blog like he didn't have any egg to wipe off his face and attempt to save some credibility. I don't mind if you were skeptical about Curry's health when he inked his deal, but Tim K flat out made the extension sound like a huge mistake.

2, what a Skip Bayless, cranky douche bag thing to do: needling at Lee's defense and provoking his fans amidst a reluctant, backhanded acknowledgement of Lee's all-star level of play this year. Kawakami doesn't merely "not give Lee a pass for defense"; the fool mealy-mouths constantly about the type of contract he has, claims Lee can't play back-to-the-basket (proven false), and made enormous blanket statements labeling Lee as nothing more than a leading scorer on a bad team (He said the same about Jamal Crawford, too... How'd that work out for Atlanta and LA?). The fact is, Kawakami seems to have had an axe to grind against Lee since he got here and apparently every compliment painfully extracted from the resisting Tim K will be accompanied, three-fold, with things that Lee does wrong. By the way, did anyone hear Tim acknowledge Lee's increased defensive output this year? About how he's rotating and calling out cutters and fouling hard and boxing out? Didn't think so.

Overall, it's the same old Tim K. He can't really spin a 4-0 road trip into something chaotic or bad, but he sounded awfully defeated in terms of being obligated to acknowledge the Warriors' promising start. It's as if he's rooting for the worst so he can prattle on with his usual "I told you so" chicken little verbatim.

I'm sorry, I just hate this fool with a bloody passion.

+1!

I was thinking the same thing... just not in so many words. All TK is doing here is mildly going along with the flow until he can find a flaw in the warriors that he can rip on them about. He always looks for the negative an it seems like he has this superiority complex, like if he was running the squad they would be doing much better.

I didn't read the article, but wanna say I don't mind his articles. Some of his takes are good, some just suck. I will say he was there to call out Cohan a lot, so props for that -- in accurately highlighting just how retarded the last owner and FO was. I think most everyone knew this though right.

He has something against David Lee tho for sure. Ever since the trade, he shortchanged D Lee in everything. Why? 'Cause of the contract. That is the problem with some fans / writers. They look at ONLY the contract and nothing else that the player brings to the team. Instead, they should be looking at building the right mix of talent (sure some contracts may have less value than others). But end of the day, it's not how much they make but how all the pieces fit together.

2012 GSW Team =

- This is what a Monta-less team looks like! How long was I saying to trade him - One word I got for them: BALLERS. They're just true ballers. Tough, gritty, competitors who know the game. I look at guys like Klay Thompson, David Lee, J. Jack, Landry, D. Green as just straight competitive ballers who WANT TO WIN (with the skills to back it up) more than other teams from warrior past.

I can't stand Kawakami, he festers in rumors, pushes a negative spin as soon as he can, and he is just a rude sob.

As far as his assessment of Monta, lets be realistic, majority already knew that a Curry/Monta backcourt was not working, its no suprise. Monta is not this, he is not that, but at the end of the day guess what ? Monta got us Bogut.

Everyone can agree Monta needed to be traded, but there was alot of impatient thinking about getting the right trade. There was alot of closed thinking about our roster, which was depleted, compare and contrast this years players with recent past. For me I understood the consequences, regardless of how poor the team played there was a reason for it, and I will never hold a grudge on Monta.

Usual prologue: Wasn’t there, so this will be fast and hardly complete–as always, the best coverage will come from those who were in Miami for the Warriors’ massive victory

Nevertheless, some random thoughts on the biggest, most significant GSW moment since the 2007 playoffs…

* Newsflash: The Warriors (15-7) are now SIX GAMES ahead of the Lakers (9-13) in the standings.

And the Warriors have played 4 fewer home games than the Lakers.

The Warriors deserve every bit of national praise they’ll get for this: 5-0 on the road trip so far, already 9 road victories, and with some mental toughness and coaching structure they haven’t had or displayed in a long time.

Better players, too. Which helps. You beat Miami in Miami to go 15-7, you are on the NBA map.

* Just today I was looking up rookie stats and couldn’t find many that were playing significant minutes–but the Warriors have three rookies (Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green) among the 21 highest minute totals.

Notably, Barnes and Ezeli (the 30th pick) start.

And Green, the 35th pick, is playing more and more and just getting better and better.

In his last four games he’s played 28, 23, 19 and tonight 30 minutes. More often than not of late, he’s finishing games–as he did tonight, of course, with very good defense, a big three-pointer, and…

Yes, the back-door cut in the final seconds that led to the game-winning lay-up.

Just a smart, smart play by a rookie who is already one of Mark Jackson’s most reliable players.

* Jackson and his players said that Green’s back-cut.. with Klay Thompson draw both defenders coming off of Green’s screen… was a called play, but I think that’s semantics.

The late cut was almost certainly a counter-move built into the read, but the main options had to be Stephen Curry on a curl on one side, then Thompson on a curl on the other side.

Both were covered. The good teams have a counter–and that was Green slipping to the rim, and Jarrett Jack seeing him and feeding him perfectly. Ballgame.

* By the way, Jack is more valuable to the Warriors now than Monta Ellis was the last few years.

I’m not saying Jack is more talented, or more explosive, or more valuable as a trade piece or for contract purposes than Ellis is, was, and forever will be.

Ellis has a rare ability to score, and he will always have a high overall value–separate from the things that win games–as long as he can score.

Sometimes Ellis won games all on his own for the Warriors. But sometimes Ellis shot them out of games, too, and sometimes his defense killed them, and sometimes his turnovers were too much to overcome.

Jack is more valuable as a winning part of this winning team. He’s a tough point guard who takes pressure off of Curry, can make plays, defend, and lead.

You don’t have to draw up plays for Jack. He RUNS the play, and glues things together.* OK, what happens when and if Andrew Bogut comes back? That’s not a bad problem to have, and I think this should ease some things in Bogut’s mind.

Basically, he doesn’t have to worry about carrying the team when he’s ready to start playing again.

He might never be 100%, but if at some point this season–and into the playoffs–Bogut can just play 20-25 minutes, provide a big defensive presence and help the ball move on offense, that’s enough with this mix of players.

I think those 20-25 minutes will probably come from Ezeli of course and maybe shave down Carl Landry’s minutes–which Jackson already does when Landry isn’t clicking offensively, which happened tonight.

By the way, Green isn’t going to be a bit player, not if he’s playing like this.

* Curry didn’t do a lot offensively tonight, but that’s mostly because he drew 90% of the Heat’s defensive attention–he was double-teamed on every pick-and-roll, and there was always a third guy ready to come help, too.

That opened up the floor for every other Warrior–and this team is playing so sharp that when you give the Warriors openings, they take them.

Given all that room for much of the game, Thompson hit a ton of shots early… and thoroughly outplayed Dwyane Wade on both sides of the floor.

After Thompson torched Wade/Mike Miller/Ray Allen for 21 first-half points, Thompson got the ultimate sign of respect: LeBron James took him for stretches in the second half. And Thompson still got some big buckets in the late-going.* David Lee was terrific again. I will keep saying it as long as Lee keeps playing like this, I promise.

warriorsstepup wrote:I can't stand Kawakami, he festers in rumors, pushes a negative spin as soon as he can, and he is just a rude sob.

As far as his assessment of Monta, lets be realistic, majority already knew that a Curry/Monta backcourt was not working, its no suprise. Monta is not this, he is not that, but at the end of the day guess what ? Monta got us Bogut.

Everyone can agree Monta needed to be traded, but there was alot of impatient thinking about getting the right trade. There was alot of closed thinking about our roster, which was depleted, compare and contrast this years players with recent past. For me I understood the consequences, regardless of how poor the team played there was a reason for it, and I will never hold a grudge on Monta.

I still disagree that the Curry/Monta back court was not working, or could not work. There are a lot of people who might disagree, but if you go back, when did they actually get to see if it would work?

For the last 2 seasons Ellis was here, Curry was hurt, so they never really got to see how well the two could play together. When Ellis was here we didn't have the supporting roster we have now. Yes, Ellis took a lot of shots, but that is exactly what Klay is doing now too. Both guys are scorers, just in different ways. The thing Ellis could do that Klay cannot is handle the ball. Ellis could create for himself or team mates, and while he wasn't the best passer, he was not a poor passer like some suggest.

If you look at the squads he played on compared to ours, you cannot simply say that because he is gone, that is why our team is better. Don't forget that we were winning some good games before the trade.

With that said, I think getting rid of Monta was good for 3 reasons:1) We got a legit Center (who we still haven't seen on the court)2) His off the court antics were toxic. I like the vibe in the locker room better now. 3) Curry is now the face of the franchise, and he is elevating not only his game, but those around him. He wouldn't do this while Ellis was there because he felt like Ellis was the leader.

I don't think Ellis get's enough credit for how good he is, and to say that he couldn't be a Starting SG on a playoff team is unreasonable, since he was never given a chance to play on a quality team. All the reasons I like the trade were for non-basketball reasons, but the kid had game.